Fated To Pretend
by pandora midnight blue
Summary: What if R and Julie didn't jump from that emergency exit? What happens when R is captured?
1. Chapter 1

**So, I got a kindle for Christmas and '**_**Warm Bodies**_**' was the first book that I downloaded. I read it all in one day. Now I'm experiencing withdrawl symptoms: so here is my feeble attempt to ease the pain.**

***This takes place in the Stadium just after Julie's father finds out the R is a zombie...**

**Disclaimer: I am not Isaac Marion, so unfortunately I own nothing.**

****Warning: Spelling and Grammar mistakes may ensue.**

**Enjoy!**

General Grigio roared in frustration as Julie rushed me down the stairs away from him. When the gun was held to my head, I had resigned myself to my fate.

I waited for the end. Now in the panic that followed the scuffle which saw Nora and Julie succeed in disarming the angry general, I was numb.

Julie was intent on sneaking me out of the stadium; however I had a gut feeling that we weren't going to make it. Rosso and his men were closing in on us from both sides as we ran to the outer walls of the arena.

Through the darkened outer stalls I spotted a flickering emergency exit sign glowing an eerie green. I tugged Julie in its direction and she immediately followed.

I got to the door and pushed it open; I was overcome with a newfound hope. Maybe I would get out of this after all. Seconds later my hope was quashed when I saw the 80 foot vertical drop on the other side of the door. Julie squeezed my hand as we turned around to face the men that had us surrounded.

"Rossy!"Julie pleaded, trying her best to hide her panic.

"Please don't do this. He is different, I swear. He's not like the others!"

The group began to raise their weapons in my direction, when to my surprise Rosso raised an arm in a signal to stop.

I cocked my head to the side in confusion. "Just look at him Rossy!" Julie pleaded again. "He has been standing here with hundreds of living within an arm's reach, and he hasn't attacked!" Have you ever seen that before?"

Rosso and a number of the men studied me more closely upon that statement. "She is right there Sir "exclaimed one of the men." I've never seen a victim of the plague with this level of awareness and restraint before"

"It's like I said" Julie continued "he's changing and has been since we first met" She looked at me for support "R, a little help here please!"

I looked Rosso straight in the eye and said "I don't know... how I have ...changed...but it is happening"

The remaining men looked at me in shock. "It can talk!" exclaimed a voice from the group. "Trickery!" replied another in anger.

"No!" I answered loudly

"Please, I don't want to be like this... let me stay...study me...learn how to fix me"

Rosso remained silent, which for me was promising at the very least.

"I don't like this" Rosso continued. "But this is something new; we can't just let it go, can we?"

There was a nod of approval coming from the men surrounding us.

"We can learn from him" Julie interrupted. "We've never had a chance to communicate with the dead before; this could see us learn something that could tip the odds in our favour!"

Julie's contribution seemed to do the trick, because Rosso signalled to his group to lower their weapons.

"Ok, Julie. I will do this for you, but the others will be harder to convince"

Julie's face lit up and quickly enveloped Rosso in a hug.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed "I promise you will not regret this. We can help him and he can help us"

I really couldn't believe how this situation had played out.

"What do we...do now?" I asked as clearly as my diction would allow.

Suddenly there was a rumbling of gunfire coming from behind Rosso's patrol. Members of the group were being thrown to the ground and the hostile newcomers blasted their way through to the front. One of them held a gun to my head. I recognised his face: It was General Grigio.

"Now, you die!" roared Grigio

**Cliff-hanger!**

**Sorry :(**

**Review and tell me if I should continue**


	2. Chapter 2

**I am seriously thinking on ducking for cover here. I am so sorry that it has been over a month****. Life just gets in the way. College and school are both hectic at the moment and exams don't correct themselves (I'm a trainee teacher, if you hadn't guessed). I released my pent up frustration at disruptive little teenagers who decide to fling wads of paper at me during class, into a creative endeavor- thus this chapter was born.**

**Thank you all for the kind reviews of the first chapter **_**and thanks but no thanks to the twat who called this story 'lame' (is that even a proper word?) and gave no reason as to why he/she believes this**_**. Constructive criticism is what I need people!**

**I hope you all like it- I kind of have no idea where I'm going with this story- feel free to give me ideas.**

**P.S. the film still isn't out over here yet, so I haven't seen it. For those of you who have... I'm so jealous!**

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_Suddenly there was a rumbling of gunfire coming from behind Rosso's patrol. Members of the group were being thrown to the ground and the hostile newcomers blasted their way through to the front. One of them held a gun to my head. I recognized his face: It was General Grigio._

_"Now, you die!" roared Grigio_

* * *

I could not comprehend what happened next. One minute I was content in the belief that I might actually make it through this in one piece and the next saw Julie's father crush my hopes. He pulled the trigger of the gun that was hovering in front of my face.

Just in that moment, as my world started to fade to black, I began to retreat back into the comfort of my own mind. I began to question my role in this new world.

If I somehow managed to survive this; what would these survivors do with a reanimated corpse? Even if I did want to be human once again, what use was I to them? How could they look over the fact that I had killed so many of their comrades in the past? I niggling thought in the back of my mottled brain began to force its way to the surface. "Why not just give up now?" it told me. "In the end this would have always been the easiest exit strategy!"

I began to listen to the voice. Images of captured zombies having their insides dissected and studied began to circle around in my head. "Why should you stay here only to have your existence end in a flurry of horrifying medical procedures?"

The voice began making more and more sense to me. My entire essence was screaming for me to lash out and bite down on the food source before me. I no longer saw the fearless General Griggo or his association to the girl I loved. All my basic instincts were rising from the pit in which I had trapped them. I was starting to lose myself. I started to become aware of an insatiable hunger in my core that was overriding all of my cognitive abilities. "Hungry!" shouted the voice that was emitting from the darkest corner of my brain. "HUNGRY!" the next thing I knew I was moving quicker than I had ever moved before.

Skilfully, I brought my right arm up under Griggo's primed weapon and ripped it from his grasp. Part of me knew that I should be stopping right now. The immediate threat was over, the danger was lessened however my body seemed to be working without my consent. I grabbed Griggo's arm and yanked it towards me roughly.

There was a loud popping noise followed by an ear-splitting roar the likes of which I had become accustomed to as my time as a zombie. It was the sound of agony. I had dislocated the arm. This way left me open to go in for the kill without the worry of being blasted in the skull by a hidden firearm. I slammed all my weight on top of the struggling General and he fell to the ground with a thud. I maneuvered his dislocated arm outright away from me and lowered my head. I was going in for the kill.

The others must have realized this fact as well, because mere seconds later I was being wrestled to the ground by the brute strength of 10 of Rosso's patrol. My skull slapped off of the concrete bleachers with loud crack.

Suddenly I became fully aware of my actions once again. My eyes widened with the sight of the havoc I had inflicted before me. Julie was screaming at the men not to kill me while throwing terrified glances at the creature that I had momentarily unleashed on her father. I could see it in her eyes that she was torn.

She was questioning her judgement to let me stay in the stadium. Maybe she as re-thinking her whole attitude towards me. I wouldn't blame her: I just tried to eat her father.

Whatever terrible thoughts were racing through her head, I no longer had the opportunity to ponder over them because my world faded out as the men shoved a coarse brown sack over my head and I retreated back into the sanctuary of my own decaying mind.

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**To be continued...**

**I will try to make the next update within the next few weeks (school permitting)**

**Please review!**

**I was astounded with the reviewers from last time, so please keep it up!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Rosso's POV**

Something was wrong with the zombie.

That is a sentence I never thought I would ever have to utter. I thought I would spend the remainder of my life trying to kill these undead creatures, yet here I am wondering what happened to one of them.

When Julie and this...creature... surrendered to me earlier today I was intrigued. I had never known a zombie to be that responsive before, never mind calmly convince me to leave it stay inside the stadium- alive!

This new found mystery however was interrupted by General Grigio's untimely intrusion. His act of violence seemed to suddenly throw a switch within the zombie's brain. The light in its eyes all but disappeared when it was faced with Grigio's gun.

Even Julie's screaming couldn't pull the zombie off her father. It seemed to revert back to the stereotypical flesh eating zombie we all love to hate.

However when my men finally managed to pry the zombie away from the general and had it suitable confined it seemed to freeze. The violent outburst it had facilitated before seemed to wash straight out of its system.

Maybe it could tell that it's clever 'friendly' rouse had been foiled and had just resigned itself to its fate. The soldier in me pointed to this being the only logical explanation for its behaviour up in the stands.

But something didn't add up.

Julie came to see me after we put the zombie in lock-down.

She begged me to give him another chance. She begged me to release him.

She even concocted a plan by which she and the zombie, who I learned was named R, could leave the stadium and find shelter somewhere else.

She didn't seem to realise the danger that would put her in and the awkward position it would place me in when the general was released from the medical bay only to find his daughter and the zombie that had attacked him, both gone.

When Grigio was escorted to the med bay he was screaming that the zombie needed to be neutralized. Many of my patrol felt the same way.

Something in the way Julie was pleading with me made me disobey his command.

Why was she so... attached to his creature?

What had she seen in him that I hadn't?

These were infuriating questions that needed to be answered.

First things first, I needed to examine this zombie.

I hope for Julie's sake that it had recovered from whatever madness had overtaken it.

**R's POV**

I was in a cage. A cage which housed 5 other zombies.

I was finding it hard to remember how I came to be in this situation. How did I end up a prisoner? Very suddenly the events of the past 24 hours came rushing back.

-General Grigio.

-A terrible all consuming Hunger.

That is when it hit me. I had reverted. Why had I reverted? I was doing so well!

Another thought popped into my brain. Why wasn't I dead?

I attacked a general. Why did I attack him?

I was drawn out of my cycle of self pity when the door at the far side of the compound opened. The cage was located in the very centre of the room and allowed for people to walk around us in relative safety.

I recognised Rosso as a member of the crowd who was shuffling in. I felt too ashamed to look him in the eye. He had been the one that had agreed to let me stay here, and then I threw it back in his face when I breached his trust.

Why did I do that?

The fact that I had gotten so hungry so rapidly made me suspicious. I hadn't felt hunger in weeks. Why did it rear its head in me all of a sudden?

Even as I sit in this cage right now, I feel sated. I know I didn't manage to finish my attempt to gorge on General Grigio, so there is no reason why I should feel this calm in the presence of these new humans.

Something was amiss.

At that moment I remembered the voice. I thought it was my inner 'zombie' forcing me to lash out when I was faced with imminent death. Maybe I was wrong. Was there more to that voice than I previously believed?

It did not fit into my new ethos. I don't eat humans. I refuse to harm another living thing as long as I remain on this earth. So why was I so quick to try to rip Julie's father apart?

I shuddered at the thought of what my stupid actions mean for me now.

Was I going to be used as target practice?

Training?

Study?

Either way I don't think this will end well for me.

**Well, that's another chapter out of the way. Please excuse the length, it seems this is all I could type today.**

**Be proud of me, this is the quickest update I have ever produced. It may have something to do with the procrastination monster that is forcing me to type about zombies rather than adolescent psychology.**

**I'm out of the country for the next week, but expect an update after I return on the 16th or so.**

**Review!**


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